The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Archived Journals 1951 Chevy 3100/3600 Project

After getting my 235 block painted and receiving a new Fel-Pro gasket kit, I gave installing the rope rear main seal a try. My first attempt didn't work out so well as I couldn't turn the crankshaft at all. I ordered a neoprene-style seal to give that a try but the seal I received wasn't even close to being the correct one. I then ordered a replacement Fel-Pro rope seal when I returned the neoprene one. After watching a dozen or more YouTube videos of people making it look really easy, I gave the rope seal another try. I did a better job as with the caps installed (at about 40 ft. lbs.) I could turn the crankshaft, but with difficulty. I think I can improve on that with more massaging of the seal into the grooves. The nice thing about a project this size, though, is that it's easy to step away from one thing for awhile and work on something else. I also recently received a new master cylinder and adapter, so those were installed on the frame. The MC will come back off for bench bleeding after I've got the new brake lines installed.

My son took it upon himself to purchase a starter motor from eBay, purchase a kit and rebuild the starter motor. He did a wonderful job. He's also using the bead blaster at his work place to clean up a number of pieces from the motor (valve cover, push rod cover, bell housing bottom cover, etc.). On our last foray to the wrecking yard to get the frame crossmember I needed, we also picked up a few othere pieces including a remote oil filter cannister. This thing was mounted to the passenger side of the motor in a pre-'54 1-1/2 ton Chevy. I think the motor was a 261. The cannister was bolted flush with the forward push rod cover, right at the front of the block. I'm going to see if I can adapt it to my 235 in some way, or perhaps mount it to the inner fender across from the intake. The filter inside was an AC brand element, so I'm guessing the cannister was an AC product. If so, it'll get painted blue and I'll have to add the appropriate lettering.

I've spent some time cleaning and painting quite a few parts for the motor. Except for what my son is working on, I've got a lot of pieces ready to go back onto the motor. I still need to clean and paint the head.

While I am taking my time to figure out how to get the rope seal situation right, I decided to go down the SM420 rabbit hole. Some months ago, I bought a pair of 4-speeds from an Offer Up ad. Both are post-'64 versions with one of them being a '67 with the reverse light switch in the top cover. Both had been stored outside for some time so they had "issues" inside. The older of the two was in the best shape so I chose that one to disassemble, clean and inspect. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the nastiness I was seeing was mostly superficial and all of the gears and shafts were in good shape. I've since ordered a rebuild kit from Novak. I've also cleaned up the top cover from the '67 trans as I plan to install a reverse light on the truck.